For the last few months, a diverse group of organizations have been discussing, building capacity and organizing in the face of an increasing threat for Mexico: hydraulic fracking. Last August, this diverse group, including Blue Planet Project, announced the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking (Alianza Mexicana contra el Fracking). We have come together with the common demand: ban fracking in the country.
Enrique Peña Nieto, the Mexican president, has introduced a proposal to reform our constitution. This reform would allow the participation of private companies in the extraction of hydrocarbons in our country. Currently, only Pemex, the state company, is in charge of extraction in Mexico. This reform has mainly unconventional hydrocarbons extraction in mind, since Pemex has perfectly the capacity and interest to keep extracting conventional oil in Mexico.
In Mexico, most of the population still ignores what fracking is. The Alliance has been working to build awareness in the general public and speaking to the media, but also talking to congress people to make sure that fracking is not given a green light across the country. We already have several exploratory wells in Coahuila, and there are likely some in other states (Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Puebla, Chihuahua). We need to stop this highly harmful practice before it extends more broadly.
We are on time to protect our water sources and our territory for the generations to come.
For more information about the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking, visit the website, follow on twitter @NoFrackingMx, and like on Facebook.
Read more in a blog I wrote about impacts of fracking in water on one of the most read online news services in Mexico (in Spanish).
Listen to a radio interview about fracking in Mexico (in Spanish).
See an online TV program about fracking in Mexico (click on 8 de octubre 2013, in Spanish).
Read an article in La Jornada (in Spanish).
